Trump Doubtful About New China Talks

FILE - In this Aug. 28, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018, in Washington. President Trump will travel to North Carolina on Friday, Aug. 31, to campaign for GOP congressional candidates in two highly competitive districts. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

The Chinese government is signaling that it is keen to return to negotiations with the U.S., but President Trump is less than excited about the prospect of a settlement.

“We are under no pressure to make a deal with China,” Trump tweeted late Thursday, “they are under pressure to make a deal with us. Our markets are surging, theirs are collapsing. We will soon be taking in Billions in Tariffs & making products at home. If we meet, we meet?”

That hardly sounds enthusiastic.

Trump has imposed tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods and Beijing has retaliated in kind, prompting Trump to threaten to tax another $200 billion worth of Chinese exports if they don’t play ball in the negotiations.

Excluding municipal bond issues and other government measures to boost lending, total social financing growth slowed to 10.1 percent in August from 10.3 percent in July, the newspaper said.

Other Chinese financial benchmarks, such as the Shanghai composite stock index, which is down 25 percent from its 52-week high, stand in sharp contrast to the U.S., where the Dow is up 20 percent in the past year.

Hardest hit will be the automotive industry, according to the survey, followed by machinery and electronics. At the moment, the hardest hit U.S. business is agriculture, but that will change to industrial companies, chemical manufacturers and aerospace firms if the new round of tariffs goes into effect.

The American firms say the Chinese government is also making life more difficult for imports through non-tariff barriers such as increased inspections and slower custom clearance. That can be expected to worsen if the new tariffs go into effect because China can’t tax an equivalent amount of U.S. imports because there just aren’t any.

I have been a financial journalist for many years, specializing in global economic questions for a variety of publications. I have lived in Asia, Africa and Europe. Foreign trade and its consequences on jobs is a particular interest. I am the winner of the Business Journali...